Optimal environmental regulation requires an analysis of the trade-offs between market and regulatory imperfections. Market allocations are inefficient in the presence of imperfections such as externalities, market power, and informational asymmetries. On the other hand, government intervention to mitigate these imperfections is not costless, and can even make market performance worse.

This course is the third course in the Ph.D. environmental and energy economics sequence at the University of Chicago. We focus on recent empirical analysis of the costs and benefits of environmental and energy policies, including an introduction to the relevant econometric methodologies such as randomized controlled trials, regression discontinuity design, bunching analysis, and structural estimation. Topics will include: energy demand and the energy efficiency gap, fuel economy and appliance efficiency standards, non-linear and real-time electricity pricing, wholesale electricity markets, renewable electricity policies, natural gas markets, retail gasoline markets, and technology innovations.